JAGUARS HEAD COACH DOUG PEDERSON
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
MONDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2022
(On the interception QB Trevor Lawrence threw on the goal line) “I think it’s something that obviously is
disappointing. You’re down there, you’re first and goal after getting the defensive pass interference call
on Marv (WR Marvin Jones) the play before that gave us that first and goal. We’ve just got to continue
to teach. With Trevor and just understanding football and understanding the situation and where we
are, all that stuff comes into play, and you don’t have to force things, you don’t have to chase plays, you
don’t have to try to make something that is not there. In reality, you’ve got all four downs to really score
the touchdown in that situation. It’s something we can learn from. We’ve got to continue to teach it and
coach it, and we’ve got to make sure as a staff that Trevor understands, number one, then number two,
we don’t make the mistake again moving forward.”
(On if the play was there and he made a bad throw) “Well, obviously he saw something that he thought
was there, and again, we’ve just got to continue to teach it and coach it. I’m not going to take the
aggressiveness away from Trevor (QB Trevor Lawrence). I love that part about him, but at the same
time, we’ve got to be smart, and we’ve got to understand that it’s first and goal at the one, and there’s a
lot of options available to you to as an offense in those situations and just know that we can’t take
points off the board.”
(On the trade deadline Tuesday) “Listen, anything is possible. We’re always going to do what’s best for
Jacksonville. We’re always going to do what’s best for the team. If teams call, you’re obviously going to
listen and be open to what they have to say or what they’re interested in, but as of right now, the roster
is what it is. I like the roster. We’ve got to continue to work and build it, but at the same time, if teams
are going to call, then obviously, you’re going to take a listen.”
(On what he learned when his 2016 team lost five straight, won their last two, then won the Super Bowl
the next year) “I think about that in our current situation here. The number one thing that I think you
find out is the men in the locker room, and you find out the type of character that they have and how
strong your culture is. I say that to say this, really the thing that you’re going to see now is you don’t
want guys to start pointing fingers. You don’t want guys making excuses. You don’t want guys to start
taking practices off or finding shortcuts to do things. I think now is the time we have to continue to rally
around each other, support each other, pick each other up. I look back on ’16 at that time, and I didn’t
change as a coach. I stayed the course. I trusted our process back then, and we’ve got to do the same
thing now. We’ve just got to continue to trust each other and continue to work because I know that
obviously we went on to win our last two, and it sort of catapulted us into the offseason, obviously the
next year won the Super Bowl, but we’ve got nine games left. Our season’s not even half over yet, and
we’ve got a lot of football ahead of us, and we’ve just got to take care of business and keep focused on
that.”
(On if anything will change in the schedule this week after coming back from London) “Not a whole lot. I
gave the players off today just to get rest. They’ll come in and get a lift in on Tuesday, and then I’ll back
the schedule off a little bit on Wednesday. We won’t go in pads Wednesday, just again, the severity of
the travel, the length of travel, the time change, and all that. Just kind of keep them fresh these next
couple days, then Thursday and Friday will stay the same. Not a big bunch of changes, but just enough to
try to keep these guys fresh for Sunday.”
(On if the team would accept a call on trading OLB Josh Allen) “I appreciate the question, but I’m not
going to get into a lot of detail about the roster right now and things like that. We know that there’s a
lot of moving parts in the NFL. Everybody’s trying to make moves, especially those teams that are having
success and all that. Even for us, there may be an opportunity to add some talent somewhere, so we’re
obviously going to take a look at everything. I’m with Trent (GM Trent Baalke). He and I are united on all
of this and how we handle the roster. I really like the guys and how they’re working right now, and like I
said earlier, we’ve just got to keep working with them.”
(On what he sees in the deep passing game offensively) “We’ve got to keep working there. We had an
opportunity, a couple opportunities yesterday actually, to shoot the ball down the field, and we either
gave up a sack or we didn’t pull the trigger. Those are just things we’ve got to continue to work on,
honestly, and it’s something that we understand as a staff, our passing game has to get better. We have
to get more out of it. That starts with us as coaches as we game plan and making sure that our players
understand that game plan, then using the strengths of our receivers and tight ends to push the ball
down the field. We understand that, we know that, so we’ve got to improve there.”
(On keeping a young player like QB Trevor Lawrence from getting too down on his ability and
shouldering the losses) “The number one thing is he understands, and I’ve got to make sure he
understands that he doesn’t have to do this by himself. It takes 11 guys on offense. The quarterback and
the head coach get all the blame and all the praise, and right now there’s probably a lot on his
shoulders, but he understands, too, and I’ll make sure he does, that he’s not in this alone, and we’re
going to continue to work and build. There’s a lot of football left. There’s nine games, and we’ve got a
great opportunity this week. We’ve just got to continue to build these players up. They’re young guys
who haven’t played a ton of football in this league, and we’re continuing to teach them each and every
day.”
(On how impressed he was with the defensive line and pass rush in yesterday’s game) “I thought the D-
line really stepped up yesterday, got back to what they did early in the season. I know we lost contain
there at the end and let Russell (Broncos QB Russell Wilson) out late in the game, and they got the first
down there, but for the most part, they were aggressive, really pushed the pocket, had some great
games in there. Arden (DL Arden Key) was explosive, Smoot (DL Dawuane Smoot), Travon (OLB Travon
Walker), you saw his length and explosiveness in there, so it was good to see him get back to that.
Again, something to build on as we move to this week.”
